22 December 2008
interview
Sam Moyo, the incumbent President of CODESRIA, is a Professor of Agrarian Studies in Zimbabwe. He works with the Institute of Agrarian Studies in Harare, mobilising research around agriculture, food and land issues as part of the broader agenda of elaborating scholarship in Africa in collaboration with organisations such as the one he now heads.
The Post: What are your impressions after your election as President of CODESRIA?
Prof. Moyo: I'm very delighted. As you know, CODESRIA has been around for the last 30 years. During these 30 years, I have been nurtured by CODESRIA through many different research and training programmes. In the last three decades, CODESRIA has tried to stabilise itself.
There are, of course, many improvements to be made. Currently, there are many serious important challenges facing the continent for which scholars, intellectuals and other actors should come together to try to shape an agenda for the continent. So, I'm proud to be part of that assignment.
What is your assessment of the manner in which the 12th General Assembly has been conducted?
The event has, basically, been very well organised. In Africa, it is usually very difficult to bring people together from the different parts because of difficulties of, say, transportation. But, in spite of these challenges, I think the Assembly was well organised. Intellectually, the focus this time was very specific on the question of Governing the Public Sphere. The main highlight, for me, has been to observe that many young and new scholars have been able to come up with new empirical information on how Africa, itself, is defining its own public sphere.
As President, what are your immediate priority areas?
Well, apart from the traditional managerial issues, we have to, at this stage, replace vacant or new positions. My priorities, in term of initiatives, would be to mobilise African scholars, through CODESRIA, to undertake major thinking on which way Africa is going in the context of the present global financial and economic crises and the rearrangement that we see happening in the West which has a lot of influence on us in the South. In other words, we'll have to think on how to reorganise and define an autonomous development agenda.
What is your response to critics who believe that CODESRIA indulges more in talk than in action...?
CODESRIA is, primarily, a research organisation. Therefore, CODESRIA has to talk but talk on the basis of good information and a rigorous analysis of what is happening on the ground before proceeding with dissemination. Now, there are some areas of improvement that are required: how to distribute this knowledge, make it usable and how to involve the different actors. We need this information. There are some constraints and gaps, though, and I think that this is one of the areas that we have to work on.
There is the belief that Africa finds itself in this sorry state because the intellectual has abdicated his role to society.
Don't forget that the intellectual environment in Africa in the last 20 years, that is, throughout the structural adjustment period, has been undermined tremendously. For instance, facilities in most of our Universities have been reduced. Most of these Universities are over crowded.
Sadly, too, the resources for our Universities are shrinking. We are left with the situation where our intellectuals, in the Universities, find themselves without the resources and the capacity to do the expected research. In view of this, I wouldn't say that the intellectuals have abdicated their role. Rather, it is actually the constraints they face that cripple their research initiatives. This is, exactly, what CODESRIA's job is: to try to enhance their capacities.
African Intellectuals should focus their minds on shaping the new world as it is imagined now; they should strive to shape the agenda that arises from what we can see clearly on a global scale, as a shift of the conditions in terms of economic management and the stakes. They should also focus on the global markets and the role of the State. African intellectuals must engage in that kind of thinking and shape what should be and not respond to it a few years later.
What can the common man expect from this meeting of African Intellectuals?
One of the most important resources that the common man should expect is that there will be a trickle down of knowledge about how to produce knowledge and the availability of knowledge about their own development and organisation of society. That is our primary goal: we must ensure that there is an adequate knowledge production system that informs the common man of their rights, of the different ways of doing things - different ways of producing food, of operating industry, organising society and producing in a more effective way in order to meet the changes brought about by the global shifts and crises that we see.
As a Zimbabwean, one would, naturally, expect that you will be concerned about the political imbroglio in your country. What do you think is the way forward?
I think that the most promising and peaceful and democratic option that Zimbabwe has is to implement the current agreement negotiated by SADC through former President Mbeki for an inclusive government which will be based on negotiations of compromise on a range of issues - political, economic and international.
For me, as a Zimbabwean, the main problems Zimbabwe has faced relate to excessive external intervention in the politics of our country. There have been, for instance, sanctions and the excessive isolation of Zimbabwe. This has gone on to such an extent that the political impasse is actually shaped overly by external influence. That is why I think that Africans, and others from outside, should try and assist Zimbabwe to form an inclusive government that is based on negotiations.
Interviewed conducted by Francis Wache, Kini Nsom & Orock Eta
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